Mon Nov 12, 2012 at 14:17:30 PM EST

( - promoted by Rob "EaBo Clipper" Eno)

Disappointed. Baffled. Why can't people see what we see? How do we get through to the electorate the dire straights we find our town, our state, our country in?

As an activist and political junky, I sometimes forget that most people don't think about this stuff (or care about it) as much as I do. In an effort to be a more effective group, the Reading RTC is in the process of examining every thing we do. And the process starts today. Our first goal is to energize local Republicans, get them more active. We have a much larger database of names, culled from sign requests and other information (one of our members worked the data for 5 campaigns), with which to target our local communications. This is a letter that the Reading Republican Town Committee will be sending out to local Republicans.

I welcome your comments.

Dear Fellow Republican,

We lost. On all fronts. And that's disappointing to say the least. But we, here at the Reading Republican Town Committee, are still dedicated to advancing our cause and our candidates.

We will continue to promote family and community over government intrusion into every corner of our lives. We will continue to advocate for leaders who push free markets over crony capitalism and excessive regulation. We will continue to work towards reduced spending and more efficiency in government in order to provide essential services with reasonable tax burdens. We will continue to restore our Founding principles of enumerated federal powers and limited federal government, giving our state and municipalities more control over how we spend our money, and on what priorities.

But we can't do it alone. Will you help us?

We are a group of 25 people out of 25,000 Reading residents. And while we are grateful for your votes, we need more. We need more involvement. We need more support. We need you to work alongside us. We are, after all, working for you and yours. For your beliefs. For the way you raise your children. For the independent, responsible, self-reliant - but caring - citizens you want them to be. For the type of town and state and country you want them to inherit.

We can't do it alone. Will you help us?

Just voting every two years, though appreciated, is not enough. We need you to attend events for our candidates. We need you to put signs on your lawn to show support. We need you to talk with your friends and neighbors, to perhaps change some minds. We need you to donate to our committee so that we may better advocate for, and support, our candidates.

We can't do it alone. Will you help us?

Our counterparts in the Democratic party have a very well-oiled and subsidized machine that gives their candidates a huge advantage on election day. They have the ability to pay for Get-Out-The-Vote operations that we just can't match. With their registration advantage and this GOTV operation, we always start every election in the hole. We can start to counter this with more action from you, be it with your time or, if time is something you can't give, with your donation.

I think the party has been too light on policy and substance. Connecting principles to policies and conditions for real people would pay great benefits. (Look no further than Scott Brown! He made no effort to connect his beliefs to potential legislation.)

This is a big reason I recommend training activists in making arguments, not just how to run an RTC.

Use capitalism and Citizens United: 1) hire a firm to do marketing plus R party membership drives. 2) articulate a specific message with specific examples. A billboard with pictures of the last 3 felon Speakers with a message that says "these crooks brought to you by the Democratic Party" is a start. Perhaps a series of advertisements.

1: Less regulation? ----> Specifics. Some husband or wife explaining that times were tough so he tried to buy some inexpensive health insurance that covered his family only in case of large emergencies. Catastrophic insurance. Then he found out that because the insurance wasn't approved by the state, he owes a whopping tax penalty.

Specifics. The democrats talk a great game. They say they're needing taxes for the poor but the poverty rate just keeps going up. You know, just like the state employees' salaries.

Specifics. My wife earns 50K per year and I don't work. We're both 60 and can't afford health insurance. We're actually thinking about getting a divorce then she'll pay me alimony. That way, we'll each have lower income and qualify for state insurance subsidy like everyone else.

2: Less taxes? ---->

Specifics: Twice we voted for a rollback in the income tax and did the Democrats listen? No.

Specifics: Wow, my parents died and owned a small business. I can't believe that I might have to sell it just to pay the Massachusetts death taxes.

3: Cut waste -------> Specifics: "Can you believe that so and so earned over $200,000? Our taxes. Can't we do something about that?

4: We need a thriving economy.

Specifics: personal income is lower now in massachusetts than it was in 2006 when Deval Patrick took office and the State came under a one party rule.

Specifics: did you know that their are fewer people working today than in 2006 when Deval Patrick took office and the State came under a one party rule.

I agree that it would be nice to have an advertising campaign about re-branding the party, especially if it were on principles that a majority could support.

But who would pay for such an expensive thing? The party has no money and isn't viewed favorably.

I think the effort should be done online, with cheap ads and websites. I think the MassGOP should have a YouTube contest where people sit in front of their webcams and explain why they are Republican. Offer some prizes for the top three videos. If you find a few good ones, then raise money to get them on television.

I have lived in Boston for 15 years now. Who is the last Republican I can think of who articulated a vision for the party? Um....... hard to think of. Candidates and campaigns almost always pick off issues rather than articulate a coherent sense of why they are Republican. (Also, they often are trying to avoid the "R" anyway, so they have little incentive to fill out the philosophy on issues that are not important.)

There are some high-level candidates I have really liked (Sean Bielat was my favorite) but, because they were running for office, they didn't want to talk about how great it was to be Republican.

I would love to see someone up top explain why they are Republican in a way that people found compelling.

thing we're going to do is have a Christmas social (on 12/13, 7:00pm, RCTV studios on Main St. in Reading if you want to stop by) to decompress, enjoy each other's company and try not to be bitter. Meanwhile I've established an Executive Committee that is reviewing our committee bylaws and our overall operations with the goal to have some recommendations and goals for our first full meeting of the year in January.

You had enough motivated people attend the caucuses that the Liberty Slate delegates won, but then the Mass GOP leadership cheated to remove them as delegates. You basically disenfranchised enough committed people who ALL could have helped get out the vote to help Republican candidates in the Commonwealth, but now all those people don't want anything to do with the Mass republican party.

Also, if we had a better candidate for president, we would have won that too, but the establishment republicans everywhere (but especially here in Massachusetts) pushed for Romney, who was a horrible candidate.

Want to help get out the vote and support Republican candidates? Stop pushing establishment candidates like Romney and listen to the grass roots next time.

of candidates we should've supported. Don't just say the one that was nominated was terrible. And the Reading RTC didn't disenfranchise anyone. BTW, not one of your Liberty Slate representatives has been in contact with me, either before or after the delegate election to see how we can work together or even what your agenda is to see if there's common ground. Also, you don't hold a monopoly, we're the grassroots too.

The presidential race is over. Libertarians could not have won the Romney nor Brown races - the margins were too high. And Romney's nomination? We weren't even consulted.

It is time to look beyond the delegate fiasco and to what the MassGOP should believe. If the libertarians want the party to move in their philosophical direction, fine. But the time for taking about the delegates and Ron Paul has ended.

The activists. Jim Lyons in part won because Brad Wyatt sent out an email asking liberty activists to help him. Those activists went door to door for Jim talking to people. There are a lot of things Jim did, but that was a key part.

Until we get our people comfortable going door to door to make the case for our candidates we will lose again and again.

In Congressional District 6, all duly elected delegates/alternates were de-certified. After being rejected by MassGOP, most of them (and the supporters that showed up at the caucus) saw through the cheating, and realized their votes didn't matter anyways, and vowed not to support Republican candidates again until MassGOP leadership changes.

In contrast, in Congressional District 3, all the delegates were certified, those delegates, and caucus attendees worked their tails off for candidate like Jon Golnik, Jim Lyons, Paul Adams, and Chuck K.

Ultimately, there is a ready set of activists that were told 'No Thanks - don't need your vote or support' by Ron Kaufman and the MassGOP leadership. If nothing else, please realize, when you disenfranchise a group of people, don't expect to volunteer, duh! That concept probably applies to way more than the Liberty movement.

You can generalize as much as you want about the issues in 2012 elections - but in the end, there were folks that chose to show up to a caucus, and wanted to get more involved in the political process, and help Republicans get elected, and many of those folks were given the bums rush.

activist thing for 4 years. I'd never even heard of the Liberty Slate until the kefuffle of the caucuses even though I'd been the Chairman of my RTC for 2 years prior to the caucuses. You seem to think that the RTCs are the same thing as the state party. We may be the "branch offices" so to speak, but I can honestly say I couldn't get a hearing from anyone on Merrimack St. if I was standing in the office with a bull horn (a problem in and of itself). Maybe it would be more productive to go around the main office and communicate directly with the "grunts" at the RTC level instead of crying foul and going home.

I guess electing Democrats is ok with you Liberty folks if you feel slighted. The problems facing this state and country are better served with the likes of John Tierney, Liz Warren and Barak Obama in office? They represent everything you folks are supposed to be against. I would think you would work for, support and vote for a rock if it would put a dent in the stateist machine. I guess not.

I'm willing to listen if you guys want to work together. Like I said above, we're looking at everything, from messaging, to organizational structure, to fundraising. All of it. If you want a say in how this particular RTC moves forward, the door is open. It's your call.

I get it - the RTC's got screwed just like the grassroots Liberty folks
(5.00 / 2)

I think you misrepresent the Liberty position. We want to be part of Team R in Massachusetts. Several Liberty supporters started their own RTC (in Amherst and other towns), and many joined their RTC's.

But, in D6, especially where all the delegtates were bounced, many Liberty supporters, felt the attitude by MassGOP said they weren't needed as volunteers - so fine, better to help other candidates. However, I know at least one Liberty supporter, Tom Bowling, overlooked being slighted, and worked hard for Mirra and other candidates.

I think it's incredulous that many RTC's, and many state committee members let clear manipulation of rules with the provisional vote controversy, and loyalty oath crap distract the from growing the GOP party and defeating Democrats. Evidently, althought the MassGOP claims try to beat Democrats, they won't stand up for grassroot allies, and try to build the army of activists needed to be successful. Evidently, many in the MassGOP would rather retain their power base, and indirectly help elect Warren Tierney, and Obama, rather than share their power and discuss Liberty ideas, and elect small government Republicans.

In fact, during the summer, countless hours were wasted setting up websites, documenting signature, rules, you can check it out at www.malibertycaucus.com Those were all hours that would have been used helping R candidates acrss the state. I also asked atleast 3 times for the actual caucus attendee list, as these are the super-super activists, and I wanted to get them more involved. crickets from 96 Merrimack St.

I suspect your RTC would have been welcoming to new volunteers, and now that election season is over, there now is time to get these Liberty supporters to join their RTC's. (Which would have happened in the summer, had we not wasted time and money fighting the state party).

Face it, we need to work together, and the real villian is the leadership on Merrimack St that killed the spirit of Liberty supporters, and created controversy and division, at a critical time where addition, not subtraction, is needed to beat a well organized Democrat machine.

I agree that structure, message and fundraising needs to change, but so does the attitude towards new people joining the Massachusetts Republican Party.
I was absolute amazed at the liberty slate activists at the 9th caucus it was a great site to see so many people to show up and get involved in the process.
The state committee leadership and committee members were so afraid of these people they changed the rules after the fact.
They would rather disenfranchise republicans than lose their tiny bit of control and what did it really accomplish?

I said at the time we wouldn't get to change the outcome in November so Maginn and the rest better deal with the results of the caucus process and work with the liberty slate activists.

The state committee members better look at themselves and their roles and realize we need more activists and volunteers involved and if that takes away a little bit of control and power it is worth it. They proved this election cycle they can't win elections by themselves and need more help.

While the committee members are at it they ought to realize they are elected officials and should be responsive to their constituents.

We have never met but I have heard you are a decent guy from mutual friends.

But to think that the Ron Paul people are the lynchpin of the explanation for what is wrong with the party is absurd self-centeredness. Our problems are enormous, and the biggest problem is how weak we are. What happened during the delegate fiasco was a symptom of that weakness, not the weakness itself.

Are we REALLY supposed to believe that if you guys all got certified and went to the convention, that the races in Massachusetts would have gone differently? Even in the Tisei race, do I think that thousands of disgruntled Ron Paul supporters would have voted against the good libertarian candidate and for the Republican? (Or that there even were thousands of Ron Paul supporters in that district?)

The reason Jim Lyons won and Jon Golnik lost has nothing to do with you guys. It is about who they were and where they ran. Yes, volunteers matter, but I don't think 1,000 more volunteers would have won the Golnik race.

And to blame Merrimac Street? Have you ever been there? I have. It's a 1990s-style boiler room with bad furniture, a few nice people, and no money. (Almost all money is directed toward specific candidate support by donors.) These people probably couldn't help the RTCs if they wanted to. But, of course, they are always the bad guy. It's just so easy. (However, if you want to blame the chairman for the delegate nightmare, fine. That was his call.)

But I know RTC people across this state, and no one ever saw this big libertarian army you guys keep alluding to. Karl is right - they didn't volunteer before, during, or after the delegate crisis. There are nice stories about a few guys here, a few guys there - and RTC or two set up in this town or that - and while that is wonderful - we're talking about the volunteer activity of maybe 200 people in a state that just voted in Elizabeth Warren by a quarter of a million people.

Looking at the math and how the races turned out, I don't think the Ron Paul people can do diddly-squat about our numbers/volunteer problem. There just aren't enough of you by two orders of magnitude.

Does that mean I want you guys to go away? Absolutely not. We need everyone we can get, and you guys could have a fantastic effect on the brand and policy. (For example, someone has to convince Republicans that the drug war is madness. Maybe it's you guys!)

But I am tired of hearing about this shadow army of thousands and thousands of libertarians who are somehow passionate about politics and yet did nothing during this cycle - when they could have changed things. Show me some data to prove that. Otherwise, I am going to chalk this up to maybe 5,000 people distributed evenly statewide who couldn't have swung a race in 90% of contests.

In closing, I really hope you guys make a difference on what we stand for, and contribute to that in the party. I think moving in the libertarian direction can get us out of the self-destructive culture war we have been fighting. We need that much more than a few more volunteers here and there helping hopeless candidates.

The MassGOP got shellacked, and I was solely pointing out a single example, not the main cause, the Liberty grassroots activist folks being actively dismissed.

If you read Malcomb Gladwell, "The Tipping Point", success and momentum are made up of a combination of many small, details. The MassGOP is going to need to find a way to build coalitions that can work together, that add up all those small advantages. There is no 'silver bullet' of a new platform, or 'embrace Liberty'(there are alot of Liberty supporters, but not more than the Democrat machine), etc.

My point of view is just one detail to add to the comments that were asked for, to try to analyse what can be done to win in the future.

In no way, shape, or form are the Liberty activists capable of turning a loss into a win, but, it's a symptom of larger problems, a demographic group, that should have been on the ground, working hard for R candidates was left behind.